Time to Rethink the Medical Strategy
At this point in time, roughly one month had passed since I admitted the problem to myself and my girlfriend. I was frustrated and embarrassed that I had gone through the whole $1200 “quick cure” experience – and basically took that whole approach off the table. Now I started thinking that maybe I just needed to talk to my normal family doctor about it, and see what he had to say. Sounds easy, right? Well – the next hurdle I had to overcome was to call the doctor’s office, and tell the nurse/receptionist that I needed an appointment for ERECTILE DYSFUNCTION. I didn’t yell out those words, as the ALL CAPS notation sometimes implies … but it felt like I was yelling them. I mean – I’ve been in that doctor’s office many times, and the staff there knows me at least somewhat … so now (in my head) they are going to know me as the nice man who cannot get it up. Or at least that is what I was thinking to myself at the time. I made the appointment – and the soonest the family doctor could see me was four weeks out … damn.

I idled in limbo for four weeks waiting for the day of the appointment to come – and then on that day, I went in and signed in as usual. “What are you here for today, Mr. Smith?” the receptionist asked me at the counter. Well shit, there are ten other people in the waiting room – do I just bark out ERECTILE DYSYFUNCTION? Hell no! I whispered those words to her – just loud enough so she could understand me. And then I sat down in the waiting room. Fifteen minutes pass – and then another nurse called out my name to come in. She led me to the scale, and then the examination room. As she prepared to take my blood pressure, she asked me that same great question of the day, “So why are you here today, Mr. Smith?” “ERECTILE DYSFUNCTION, god damn it.” No – I didn’t say it that way at all … but I wanted to. The fact was – I was embarrassed as hell. It was hard to think those two words, much less say them out loud to a nurse. That particular nurse was somewhat comforting – she said something to the effect of “Things happen as we get older.” Then she said something about going through menopause, or something. I have to say that even though I was listening to her … I wasn’t all there. I was half shell-shocked at the idea of being in there in the first place for this “condition.” As she left me alone in the examination room, I thought to myself, “So this is what my life has come to.”

My family doctor is a really good guy. He is Korean, and roughly five years or so younger than me. I’ve always had very frank discussions with him in the past about more typical things like smoking (he got me to quit), weight, blood pressure, etc. But the topic of this visit was huge to me. He came in, and talked with me about my concerns. We discussed the fairly recent death of my father. We also discussed the various medications I was taking. He asked me if I had considered changing girlfriends – which was very valid. Often times things just get boring – and a new lover can often jumpstart one’s biology. Next is basically everything he told me.